Re-watch value:2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

*partially taken from DramaList*

Would you choose to love someone you could never remember?

Gong Ma Sung (Choi Jin-Hyuk from Emergency Couple, Gu Family Book, Heirs) grew up in a difficult life and experienced some hardships, yet still made joy from it. He is the successor to the Sunwoo company and excels in anything to do with the cranial nerve. From his difficulties, he is respected and looked up to as a brilliant man. One day, his kindness destroys his life. Whilst trying to help a woman in trouble, he gets into an accident and life completely changes. He loses the ability to remember, his memory only limited to one day. Now, before he goes to sleep and forgets everything, he notes all events from that one day, for the next. He wakes up with no recollection of the past, and reads back on his notes to memorize.

His life changes further when he meets Joo Gi Bbeum (Song Ha-yoon from Fight for My Way), a once popular star, who was a celebrity and entertainer loved by all. She is not as revered as she once was, having going through a horrible experience that shaped who she is in the present, ruined her confidence and destroyed her future. When they meet, Gong Ma sung falls in love with her and a connection is formed but how do you develop a love when every day seems like the beginning?

Rambling

*beware of spoilers*

The thing that characterizes this drama the most is lovely, excessive kissing and great chemistry from our two leads – layered over a particularly boring, predictable, and melodramatic plot.

The first episode was like K-drama crack. Ma-sung runs into Gi-bbeum in a really funny meet-cute (he mistakes her for a business counterpart and she mistakes him for a fan wanting an autograph, meanwhile, she’s shitting her pants). They spend the day together and have a whirlwind romance that ends in a legendary smooch. She doesn’t want the night to end and so they agree to meet again (on the same picturesque stone staircase) in just one hour. Oh boy.

Anyway, all hell breaks loose within that one hour. Ma-song overhears Gi-bbeum’s entertainment CEO and a douchey label mate buying drugs and planning to date rape Gi-bbeum that very night at their hotel. He pursues them on the streets of Hainan, China, and promptly gets run over while crossing the street in classic K-drama fashion. Ma-song loses most of his long-term memories (including those of that day) and his short-term memory is wiped clean every night à la 50 First Dates.

Because the douchey label mate winds up mysteriously dead in the hotel room where Gi-bbeum lay drugged and unconscious, she becomes an acquitted murder suspect and her career goes up in flames. Ma-song and Gi-bbeum meet 3 years later when she is at her lowest.

I think Ma-song’s fixation on Healing Village was probably the most boring part of this show, followed closely by the quite literally unbelievable backlash Gi-bbeum endures. Likewise, the motives for the aunt and the CEO were super weak. I feel strongly that the CEO should have had a bigger hand in the douchey label mate’s death, rather than just covering up the fact that he facilitated his drug addiction, which caused his death. It was never fully explained why the gum-chewing fiend loathed Gi-bbeum so much that he would not only sell her off to this dude (you know, so he could rape her as he pleased) but also pin the entirety of the crime (i.e., his sudden death) on her and continually cockblock her career, even going so far as to sabotage her TV gig and nearly drown her. I understood that he was scared of the consequences, but surely there could have been some other way to spin the story than butcher the career of your one other hallyu star?

Obviously, Ma-song’s accident was no accident. His devilish aunt (in cahoots with Ma-song’s close neurologist friend) staged the accident to get him and his company shares out of the way… Very, very predictable. In a later episode, he literally asks her why, amidst tears, and she simply says that he was always an unlucky boy with a tragic fate, and that she hated him for stealing everything from her, since he received his parents’ estate after they died instead of her collecting the assets and inheriting the company outright. With her ridiculously plastic face that just seemed mildly annoyed the entire show, I just couldn’t buy her reasoning. Lastly, did I read too much into it, or did she also imply that she orchestrated the car accident that killed Ma-song’s parents?

Speaking of plastic, Choi Jin-Hyuk’s face is an odd sort of plastic handsome. His nose has always looked unnatural to me, especially when he smiles, but I guess people look past that? His voice, however, is so damn sexy.

Some things that I particularly liked were a few exchanges and reactions. For instance, in episode 11, Ma-song speaks with Gi-bbeum’s dad:

Dad: Have you seen a cactus bloom?

Ma-song: No

Dad: Cacti bloom, too. It’s a hard thing. That’s why it’s more precious and beautiful.

Gi-bbeum’s dad proceeds to name a potted cactus “Ma-song’s Joy” – which translates to Devilish Joy. Joy is the translated meaning of Gi-bbeum’s name. I thought this was so beautiful, to relate their difficult love line to a cactus blooming. Rarely do these K-dramas have such a deep title, but I appreciated this one.

Episode 12 was when Ma-song finally let the cat out of the bag regarding his deteriorating health and memory loss. His nephew Gi-joon breaks down sobbing in a bizarrely empty parking garage, and it was surprisingly poignant. He was losing his only confidante, his uncle, his best friend. This character was always so childish and out of control, but in between sobs he expresses a childish belief that he may have brought on Ma-song’s illness. He says that his aunts and his mom always favored Ma-song (which they really didn’t, they just hated him) and because of that he always resented him a little. Even though he loved him, he may have wished him dead or wished ill on him out of jealousy.

I honestly thought they would leave the clearing of Gi-bbeum’s name until the very end of the show, but they resolved that neatly by episode 13. Episode 15 reveals that our leads OF COURSE met when they were younger. Ma-song saved Gi-bbeum from drowning. ::yawn:: On that note, the little girl that plays Gi-bbeum as a child is the cutest little Asian girl I’ve ever seen in my life.

Episode 16 was dumb because Ma-song literally runs away to die from his diseased brain. But his neurologist friend remembers he is a human being and by some miracle, Ma-song is recovering at Healing Village just one year later. Except now he can’t remember that past 3 years. Ugh.

I didn’t think they could top the uncle/nephew bromance reunion, which hit me right in the feels, but the Ma-song/Gi-bbeum reunion scene in the front of the fountain was absolutely gorgeous. I was riveted by how it played out and the setting and the slo-mo <3

Obviously, Ma-song and Gi-bbeum get married, yada-yada. They have four weddings because Ma-song keeps forgetting the ceremony, which is hilarious. In the end, Ma-song’s detailed journal of their love story gave me major The Notebook vibes.

All in all, not bad, not good. If you’re remotely interested, then there’s nothing I can say to stop you.

OST